When the agents questioned him in 2003, he denied helping a Yemeni cleric who prosecutors said made a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn mosques in 1999.

It was decided to try them at the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, because al-Moayad was alleged to have done some of his fundraising at a Brooklyn mosque.

A funeral for the two girls will be held today at a Brooklyn mosque.

The decision went against the wishes of F.B.I. officials who had linked Mr. Ahmed, and the Brooklyn mosque he was affiliated with, to terrorists.

He was arrested at a Brooklyn mosque Friday night after a tense standoff and days of debate within the Clinton Administration over how to handle the case.

The central witness will be a paid police informant who knew Mr. Siraj from a Brooklyn mosque and the nearby Islamic bookstore where he worked.

He is president of the board of a Brooklyn mosque where Sheik Rahman often preaches.

The agent, Brian Murphy, said the sheik was under surveillance by federal agents as he made a series of visits to Brooklyn mosques with Mr. Maflahi.

Mr. Defreitas said he recognized the informant from attending services at a Brooklyn mosque, took him into his confidence and slowly disclosed his plan to attack Kennedy, according to the complaint.

A Moslem leader who won praise and community support when he led volunteers from his Brooklyn mosque against drugs said yesterday that the anti-drug patrol in Bedford-Stuyvesant would be expanded.